often compared him to me, and i think my little brother wanted to be the anti-larry, as i explain in my book. >> host: where are they today? >> guest: dennis died about 15 years ago. my older brother is still around, he is a foreman with a major oil company, happily married, has three children -- by the way, both of my brothers married women who had children and went on to have very long marriages. >> host: talk about your brother's funeral and your mother's view and your view and what actually happened. >> guest: you're talking about dennis' funeral. and, again, this is the brother that i didn't get along with. and my brother dropped out of high school. he did a lot of drugs. the military straightened him out. but he got out. he was still fairly wayward. and when he died, i said to my mother, we'll just have a very small service because dennis, dennis' friends are scattered here and yon, and they're not the kind of people that you can reach on a phone and will show up. and she says, you don't know him. we need to have a big church.

dennis' friends are going to find out that he died, and they'll be here. it was one of the largest funeral i'd been to. almost like maag relate thatcher -- margaret thatcher had died. people were coming from everywhere. he lived in arizona, other parts of the country. people came to pay their respects to him. and when i would hear them talk about him, it was almost like my dad's and my conversation because i would hear things about my brother that i didn't know and things he'd said and done that i didn't know, and he was apparently a far better friend to other people than he was to me in many cases. my brother and i shortly after he died, he was laying in the hospital x we had a very long conversation, and i found out that he did respect me and love me and look up to me, and i told him the same thing. and it was kind of a nice moment. >> host: larry elder, do you have any reticence about writing a family history and putting your life out there in print for people? >> guest: i would not have written that book had my mother still been alive. there's a story i told about how my mother got my brother in the

service. i'll let the readers read it. my mother would not have liked me to have told the story. but it tells you my mother was gutsy. my mother was tough. and the book, the book is a, a book that's also an ode to her as well, but there's some stories in there that my mother probably would have been embarrassed about. >> host: you know what? i don't often do this, but it's worth getting this book just to read that story about his mom. frank, in montgomery, alabama, you're on with larry elder on booktv. >> caller: mr. elder, i appreciate what you said. but i want to -- >> guest: hi, frank. >> caller: have you read a wonderful poem by robert hayden? a bunch of sundays? it fit well what you're saying about your father. and it's a short, wonderful poem. it begins that --

[inaudible] and put his clothes on in the blue black cold. and from then -- [inaudible] weekday weather made bank fires blaze. then he says in the poem that when the rooms are warm, you recall me. i would get up -- [inaudible] driven out the cold and feeling the -- [inaudible] but then he says later on -- [inaudible] what did i know? what did i know of love's austere and lonely offices? finish so -- so the point is, you make the point so well in your talk that your father did love you. but you didn't know that, what that love austere and lonely offices. my father and i never got along together. he lived to be 104 years old, but we never got along together. but i love what you said. and i'm glad you wrote it. republican or whatever you are. [laughter]

>> guest: well, thank you very much, and you're absolutely right about the old man getting up and going to work every day, not liking it, and that was his role modeling. and and you didn't realize it when you're a kid, to watch somebody get up, and they're complaining, they're grumping, they don't want to go to work, but they do it anyway because they've got obligations. that's what you learn by having a father in the house. one of the things i also talk about is it also affects the girls. you don't have a father in the house, and often what happens is a girl would meet a man and demand thoughts of -- [inaudible] and show her some sort of affection, she embraces this guy. and if he's a bad guy, it's too bad for her. and so not having a father in the house effects not just boys, but girls as well. >> host: larry elder spent several years living in cleveland working for a law firm, and this next call comes from bobby in ohio. >> caller: i've got a question for you in regards to the comment you made about rg 3:and

the article about him being called an uncle tom. why would you state that person saying that would be republican? wouldn't democrats actually sometimes have feelings like that? i'm a republican, and i don't feel that way towards rg iii, so i'm just curious why you would say that. >> guest: you either misunderstood what i said, or i said it badly. what i said was the espn guy criticized rg iii because he thought he was republican. he said there's a rumor he's republican, i don't know about that. he's got a white fiancee, i don't know about that. he called him a cornball brother because he suspected that rg iii was a republican, but he had a white fiancee. that is why this caster called him a cornball brother which i think is a racist thing. so i'm sorry if i misexplained it. >> host: go ahead, bobby, you're still on the line. >> caller: i appreciate that. i agree the same way you do then. i think it's totally a racist comment also. >> guest: absolutely.

>> caller: and -- >> host: thank you, bobby. >> caller: and i'm a republican -- okay, thank you. >> guest: all right, thanks for calling in. republicans don't like being called racist, and with good reason. they shouldn't be called racist. >> host: larry elder, "dear father, dear son," is this an african-american story? >> guest: no, it's an american story. it's a story about a guy who struggled, who overcame, who endured the great depression, who joined to fight in the second world war, who was part of what tom brokaw called the greatest generation. it is an american story of hard work, of triumph, of family, of success. this is a guy who did not know his biological father, became a entrepreneur, started a café, being able to buy that piece of property and the little house next door to it, plus the house in south central. my father is an american success story. >> host: linda is in winthrop, massachusetts, larry elder is our guest. >> caller: yes, hi, larry. i have a question for you. >> guest: hi. >> caller: hi. i'm very impressed by your

story, and i know there are a lot of people out there that, um, have a hard time forgiving whether it's their parents or their spouse, and in some cases even their children. did you find that you were able to have the kind of forgiveness after ten years because you turned your life over to jesus and you gave it to him? i'd be interested to know. >> guest: well, i've always been a christian. my mother was, taught sunday school. so going to church was not an option. i spent my 21st birthday in jerusalem as part of my junior year abroad in israel. i've always been very religious. no, that had nothing to do with it. the reason, i suppose, the ten-year relationship healed so quickly is during the eight-hour conversation because of my father's demeanor. when i unloaded on him and told him all the things he had done harshly, my father was like, is that it? you're mad at me for whipping you with a belt? that's it? do you know to know what my

father did to me? and it was horrific. my father was like, is that all you have? [laughter] >> host: larry elder, did your father go to church? >> guest: he did not. my father was a religious man though. he did not go to church, and i talk about that in the book. my father felt that organized religion was partly a scam. my father thought there was something wrong about the man in the south who was the pastor during the great depression having the biggest house, driving the nicest car, wearing the nicest clothing. he thought the person who's a man of god should be poor and should be wearing holy clothes and should not be sporting around in the sunday best. he said there was something inherently wrong about that. he also, when he came home, my dad said his mother and the neighbors would be gossipping about what was going on in church. so my father thought going to church was a big dress-up thing, a big thing to gossip, who's doing what, who's sleeping with whom. and my father thought it had

very little to do with god, so he worshiped himself. he would often watch televangelists on tv and would read the bible, but my father felt that organized church was a ripoff. i'm not saying i agree with him, my mother certainly didn't, but it was one of the differences they had. >> host: you also say your parents never went anywhere together, they lived separate lives. >> guest: my father and my mother slept in separate bedrooms after a while. they never took vacation together. i never saw them kiss, i never saw them hold hands until after my dad and i reconciled, and then i began talking to them both, and i think that i improved their relationship a little bit. and much to my surprise be, they met some friends who lived in scottsdale, arizona, and they actually packed in the car and drove this together. i was stunned. and they stayed in motels along the way. i presume they had to sleep in the same bed. but i think my relationship with my dad, once it healed, improved their as well. >> host: and that couple in scottsdale, that was a white

couple, right? and they went to the grand canyon? >> guest: they went to the grand canyon. the story they tell me is at the ticket praise -- place the person said i need to know who your family is, and the man said, here they are. all these black people with these white guys, and the ticket guy goes, okay, let 'em through, and they went through. >> host: temple city, california. hi, bob. >> caller: am i really on or no? >> host: yes, you are. >> caller: okay. mr. elder, you're the best. i've been listening to you. 38 year withs army, three wars, blown up in iraq, 32 years hapd. that's not my question. my question is when are you going to stop playing around d lack of words -- and run for president? [laughter] >> guest: two things could happen if i run. one of them is i could win, the other one is i could lose, and

both of them are bad. [laughter] but thank you for that. i've given it some thought, seriously, and i came this close to running for senate against barbara boxer, and i flew to d.c., and i met a bunch of senators. my be arena lost by ten points, i could have. >> host: larry elder, what do you think about the kerfuffle around dr. ben carson? >> guest: i like dr. carson, and i thought that it was pretty gutsy for him to have said what he said right in front of the president, advocating the use of health savings accounts to deal with medical issues. and i'm not a big proponent of obamacare. i think that obamacare will, ultimately, hurt this country. and i agree with them. but for people who are touting him for running for office? please. to go from being a practicing physician to being president of the united states is not going to happen. i understand how people can get starting with certain people like they did with donald trump. but i'm not a big let's find

somebody who i think embodies what i want who's never run for office and is trying to stick them in the presidency. it's not going to happen. >> host: what do you think about republican efforts, outreach to african-americans, latinos, etc. >> guest: you have to reach back as well. republicans are not racist. the republican party, as a percentage, more of them voted for the passing of the civil rights act of 1964 than did democrats. and all of those politicians that stood this front of school doors, they were democrats. george wallace was a democrat. orville -- [inaudible] of little rock was a democrat. and not all of them became republicans once the civil rights act got passed. so the idea that republicans are racist is not fair. you look at the his right-of-way the democratic -- history of the democratic party, this is a party that voted against the 13th, 14th amendment and basically every civil rights legislation passed in the 9th century -- 19th century, the republican party was against it. the first successful presidential candidate was a guy

named abraham lincoln. republicans have a major story to tell. but often people don't want to hear about it, they believe the republicans are racist, and they shut their minds to it. this is not your grandfather's republican party. republicans are very sensitive about reaching out to blacks and hispanics. but they often con desend. they often say things like, oh, i know somebody who picked fruit with cesar chavez. i'm not looking for a fishing buddy, i'm looking for somebody who's going to advance policies that i want. i want a government who says out of my wallet and bedroom, and whatever politician delivers it gets my vote. >> host: why do you think mitt romney lostsome. >> guest: because if you look at exit polling, most americans believe the economy was so messed up by george bush that obama struggled mightily to overcome this horrible situation he inherited. the second reason is most americans believe republicans only care about rich people. and those are branding problems that the republican party has to to overcome. and it's hard to overcome it

because you've got three obstacles; academia, hollywood and our major media, all of which are overwhelmingly liberal. when you say something, it's got to be interpreted through the filter of those three entities, and often it's been distorted. >> host: larry elder is our guest, this is booktv on c-span2 live from the los angeles times festival of books, campus of usc. mike's in fort worth, texas. hi, mike. >> caller: how's it going, larry? my -- pretty good. i'm a african-american democrat, but i agree with you one of the big problems in the african-american community is lack of fathers in the house. but i think, larry, when you say that, you kind of come off kind of harsh on black people. now, what's the reason behind the lack of a lot of fathers being in the house, drinking or in prison? well, back -- this is my belief. back in the '30s and '40s black people were lawyers, they

had their own businesses like your father had that restaurant. today had, they were dentists -- they had, they were dentists, we had a lot of grocery stores because there was segregation, and we couldn't go to white places, so we had to become plumbers, our dentists, doctors and physicians. well, for the last 56 years there hasn't been, there hasn't been -- black youngsters haven't seen, haven't been able to go to the black dentist say like in the '30s or '40s or to a grocery store that's owned by black people or to a black doctor's office. you get my point, what i'm trying to say? all they see is the gangs and the fast money. so the lack of black businesses and for youngsters to see that and say i want to be like that, i want to be, own a grocery store, i want to be like that mechanic or doctor, that's part of the problem too. i just want to get your comment on that, larry. >> guest: well, it still comes back down to the lack of fathers. look at these census reports.

1890-1940, a black person was more likely to be married than a white person. transfer, a black child was -- therefore, a black child was more likely to be born in a nuclear-intact family. and as i mentioned, in 1965, 25% of black kids were born outside wedlock. fast forward, it's now three times that. what's the answer? racism? really? during the great depression, 50% of black adults were unemployed. you didn't find this kind of criminality. the other -- poverty? again, 50% of black adults were unemployed during the great depression, and you had jim crow where it was legal and de facto segregation. you didn't find the same kind of criminality. we have spent $16 trillion since 1965 on poverty, and what we've done is we've destabilized families. that is why when a kid sees a gang banger, as you mentioned, he looks at that gang banger and thinks, hey, this is what i want

to be. he doesn't have a father to say, wait a second, this is not the way to go. hit the books two good, hard hours a day. finish high school, don't have a kid before you're 20 years old and get married before you have that kid. if you do that, you will not be poor. the question we have to ask ourselves is, what policies are we doing that are giving people the incentive or disincentive to follow that formula? >> host: larry elder, a conversation between you and your mother beginning with your mother. your mother thought -- your father thought small. don't make the same mistake. that's unfair. oh, here you go again, defending him. he's not donald trump. he was a wimp, she said. >> guest: yeah. my mother -- she was in a bad mood at the time he said that. my mother thought my father should have been a more successful businessman, and i didn't think that was a fair criticism. i thought my daddied the best he could with what he did. he kept the door open. most restaurants fail, and to have a restaurant that remained open until my dad was in his

80s is a hell of an achievement. and i thought my father belittled his achievement. again, my mother was not the warmest and most fuzzy person, but i didn't take too much to heart with that statement. >> host: she spent a little bit of time on your radio program, too, didn't she? >> guest: my mother was on every friday for a whole hour, probably the most popular feature because she told it like it was. she didn't pull any punches. my mother didn't like something, she'd say so. and people loved her candor. >> host: iraq. what would your mother -- i'm sorry, iran. what would your mother have done with iran? >> guest: well, i tell the story in the book, i was a first-year law student, and this is when the hostages were taken in iraq -- in iran. and we were all talking about what should be done, and one guy said we ought to file a class action lawsuit and freeze assets and all this and that. and i said i know what my mother would do. they said, what? she'd give 'em 48 hours and bomb the hell out of them. everyone said, oh, no.

so i said, watch. i picked up my phone. i called my mom in l.a. i said, mom, the hostage thing in iran. she goes, yeah? what would you do about it? uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. hung up the pone the. well, did she say she'd give 'em 48 hours? i said, no, she's mellowing out, she'd give them 72. [laughter] >> host: katherine in hannah, utah. good afternoon. >> caller: yeah. >> host: katherine, we're listening. please go ahead with your question or comment for larry elder. >> caller: oh, i'm sorry. i didn't hear. i wanted to say thank you so much, first of all, for sharing your personal story. it's very inspiring. i -- [inaudible] a kid like you. he's 30 years old, and he's afraid to be a bad dad. but he's an amazing man. he's doing everything and anything not to be like that, so what kind of reaffirming or things that you want to do for him to say, no, you can, you can be a great dad, actually?

>> guest: i would tell him, again, not to try and be his friend. recognize there are going to be periods of time where the kid won't like you, may even hate you the way i did my father. and you have to hope that be you've done your job, at some point there'll be a realization that you've done your job, and your kid will appreciate that. every kid that i know of sooner or later has that epiphany. sooner or later, it happens. every parent recognizes that, and good participants realize -- good parents realize sooner or later a kid will thank them for their sacrifice. >> host: sandy in marino, california, please go ahead with your question or comment for larry elder. >> caller: hi, larry. thank you so much for taking this call. very interesting story you have. i just have a quick question. you mentioned earlier that the breaking point was when your dad used certain language to you, and you left the restaurant, and you hadn't spoken to him for ten years after thatment -- that. so how did you live in the house

with your dad for ten b years as a teenager without saying anything to him, or was it not that drastic? >> guest: well, it was kind of drastic. we don't have a big house. the house, as you can see, was on the same plot where the restaurant is. so it wasn't a big house. but by then we had moved, and the house we have right now was not much bigger. remember, my dad worked real hard, he came home late. i'm a teenager, so i left for college when i was 17, so it was just two years of, basically, avoiding him. and we were like two ships passing in the night. he'd come in real late, i would be asleep. i would get up, he would be gone, so it was easy to avoid not talking to him, and then once i left to college, i went to college in rhode island, and then i went to law school in michigan. so i was not in the same state with him, so it was quite easy to avoid him. and by the way, the caller who said that it seemed kind of harsh what i was saying about

not having fathers, i interviewed the head of the naacp, and i said to him as between the presence of white racism or absence of black fathers, which poses a bigger threat to the black community, and without missing a beat, to his credit, he said the absence of black fathers. there's a movie called boys in the hood, and the director is john singleton. he talks about two families. one is the family of ice cube, no father in the house, and you saw how the family turned around. the other family was across the street, and that was cube baa gooding jr., and lawrence fish burn was his father. and he turned out very differently. and john singleton did a second movie called baby boy which he talked about the sexual predatory behavior of young black men, and john singleton is from the same area that i'm from. he's talking about the centrality of fathers and the lack of fathers being the central problem in south central and, in my opinion, the central social problem in america. >> host: next call for

mr. elder, we have about seven minutes left in our program. dennis in sharon, massachusetts. hi, dennis. dennis? >> caller: yes. can you hear me? yes -- >> host: please go ahead. >> caller: okay, great. i'm a great fan of c-span. i watch booktv every weekend. my father was born in 1892, i was his first son. when i was born, he was in 60 years old. he left macon, georgia, as he told we because he saw a black man being burned in the fountain of downtown macon, georgia. the point i would like to make is that i really believe it's, obviously, the father being in the household is a tremendous service to the children, without a doubt. but most importantly i really believe this thing about mind power. having the focus in order to be

able to have a discipline to achieve what your goals are in life. the other thing i want to say is that there's a psychological underpinning that i believe hardly anybody talks about in which people aspire to be the anti-antihero. so a lot of this outburst that we see is really someone who really believes by doing something that, quote-unquote superbad, is better than being good. people want to do the contradiction. and that's what is sort of at the underlying literature that's in the culture. and i'd like to hear what your comment to that is. >> guest: well, i think you're right. i think if you don't have an appropriation role model -- appropriate role model in the house acting out, trying to get some sort of attention to scratch that itch is what, often, people do. one of the things my dad can and i talked about when we reconciled was these so-called black leaders that don't emphasize the real issue, and

that's the lack of fathers in the house. you find a lot of people emphasizing racism, racism, racism, and as i pointed out, in my humble opinion, racism is no longer the major rob in america. let's just take jesse jackson. his mother was a teenager who was impregnated by the man who lived next door, and jesse jackson was raised in south carolina, and he was taunted by kids saying jesse ain't got no daddy. so it seems to we he ought to be talking about the importance of having a father in the house. farrakhan, farrakhan's mother was estranged from her father. she had a boyfriend. went back with the father, got pregnant, didn't want the boyfriend to know, so she tried to abort louis farrakhan three times with a coat hanger. and in the case of sharpton, sharpton lived a middle class life until his father abandoned the family, and then down to the ghetto. they talk about racism, racism as opposed to the centrality of fathers even though in their own lives the lack of their dads, in my opinion, had a very profound impact of how they view the world. one of the reasons they're so

angry, perhaps, is because they didn't b have a father in the house, and instead of talking about importance of fathers and policies that can encourage people to get married before having children, they talk about racism, racism, racism. in my opinion, they're doing a disservice to the community. i think they're being leaders to the best of their ability, don't get me wrong. i don't think they're doing it in bad faith, but i think they ought to rethink what they're doing. >> host: leroy, ham den, connecticut. please go ahead. >> caller: yes. i'd just like to say, i kind of agree with what you're saying about a strong father in the home, but my thing was i was raised in four different foster homes. and the fathers were strong figures on the disciplinary side. there was never any love, never any hugging. it was going to school and do your homework and be good. but the thing that really bothered me, i never knew love from a father. all i knew was discipline. it did teach me one thing, work

and you'll be successful. even though without love i found that out. and the last foster home i lived in i really loved that man. he never knew it. he died before i had a chance to tell him. but that's why i'm so glad you had a chance to sit down and can talk to your father. but it taught me one thing that you said that you did the best, they did the best they could with what they knew. my children, and when they grew up, they told me the same thing. dad, we love you. you may not have been the best father in the world, but you were the best for us because you did the best that you knew how to do, and they're all successful now. they're all with college educations. i just wanted to share that with you. >> host: all right, thank you, leroy. >> guest: thank you very much. could you imagine the lawsuit i had against my father based on how he raised me and the way kids are right now? i probably could have called 911 and had somebody out come out and take him away based on how kids were discipline inside

those days. >> host: in your book you talk about graduating from crenshaw high school but also going to fairfax high school here in l.a. for some other courses and the difference between the two. >> guest: yeah. one of the reasons i'm so adamant about having parental choice in education is because i went to an inner city public high school, crenshaw high school, and i thought i was a world leader. i graduated number seven in my class, and i had exhausted all of the spanish we had. i'd gotten as all the way up. and we had a program called air program enrichment ec change, and it was an peoplerral d experimental program. and if you didn't have a course, you could be bussed for some classes to that school. so i was bussed to fairfax which was then almost 100% jewish for one semester. i took spanish, and i took physiology, and i was flunking both those courses. i never flunked a course in my life. these kids were held to higher standards, their teachers expected more out of them.

the kids were expected to speak spanish, and i learned that the expectation was far, far different in my inner city high school than it was in a suburban high school. and it made me angry. and i was determined that i was going to make sure i was going to advocate the power that parents should have to take their kids out of a bad school and put them into a better show. >> host: what time is your radio show on? >> guest: 3 until 6 monday through friday, pacific time. >> host: and people can hear it where? >> guest: kabc.com, larryelder.com, facebook and twitter. >> host: and larry elder's most recent book is "dear father, dear son. two hours, two lives, eight hours --" >> guest: right. >> host: are you working on another book? >> guest: of course. writers are always working on another book. >> host: does it come back to politics? >> guest: actually, it's not. it's about a young italian guy who grew up with a father who had a voice every bit as good as frank sinatra and used the voice the scam people. that's all he did.

he would do a concert, and old ladies would come up to him, and they'd give him money for a movie, and he'd take their movie and go to the next town. and this is the father that a friend of mine had. he's got all his music, and i'm telling you, this guy was a wonderful singer. people compare him to some of the great singers like caruso. so that's what the next book is about. >> host: sounds like you're venturing out away from politics a little bit. >> guest: i do like writing in general, but every one of my books has a political core to it. >> host: well, we've been talking here on booktv with larry elder. "dear father, dear son: two lives, eight hours." pick up the book to find out how his mom got his brother dennis into the military. [laughter] thanks for being with us. >> guest: my pleasure. thank you very much for having me. >> host: and that's going to wrap up our coverage today from l.a. we will be back tomorrow, by the way, and 2 p.m. eastern time, 11 p.m -- 11 a.m -- i'm too tired to be doing this.

11 a.m. pacific time we will again be live for about six and a half hours tomorrow. several different author panels again including panels on marijuana legalization, hollywood and politics and several call-in opportunities for you to participate in as well. radio talk show host dennis prayinger will be joining us. we'll be talking about processed foods. ..

marijuana, 17 million admitted to using last month. cigarettes, 55 million alcohol 130 million. that wraps up our coverage. we will see you tomorrow. see next, booktv sits down with eric draper the longest-serving whitehouse photographer here to discuss his photographs of former president george w. bush. it's just over half an hour. >> "front row seat" is the name of the book and it was put together by eric draper on george w. bush. mr. draper in the book could a black kid from south-central los angeles be the photographer for the president of the united states? was the answer that question? >> guest: that's a big yes. >> host: how did you get the job? >> guest: back in 2000 i was assigned by the "associated press" to cover the bush campaign and i was the

photographer. that is my background, photojournalism. i covered the campaign full-time for 18 months. >> host: did you get to know the president and that kind of work? >> guest: you do, you do. you spend a lot of time on the road mostly with other journalists and a lot of time with staff, campaign staff and i really didn't think about the job until actually after the election because you might remember the election wasn't decided that night and during the recount, that gave me the opportunity to receive a position of governor bush had won the election. everything lined up. that was perfect timing for me because right after he became president-elect i had the opportunity to ask him in person and actually took a page out of this political playbook. during the campaign it was going on in my head at that point that i would look them in the eye and

asked him for the job. that is what i did at this party right after he became president-elect. >> host: what was his answer? >> guest: well he kind of looked at me and the longest handshake ever for me. he looked at me like he had never thought about it before and he said i really appreciate that and i will get back to you. a week later i received a call from the chief of staff office for an interview. it all happened very quickly. >> host: how many years did you spend with president bush? >> guest: well, if you count my time with him as a journalist , nearly two years. >> host: so you are at the white house for eight years with him. how many photos did you take altogether? >> guest: we had a digital system at the time and i typed in my name to see how many hits would come up and it came around to nearly 1 million images under my name. that's everything. that's out of focus photos,

photos of my feet you know. >> host: eric draper you have a picture of the top top cop of the oval office. how did you get up on top of the oval office? >> guest: i mounted the camera on the top of the oval office. there is a little ledge that lines the top of the oval office where the lights are and there was just enough room for a camera. so what i did was i mounted a digital camera and left it up there all day to show the sequence of events through an entire day from the very moment when president bush would walk into the oval office through all of his meetings. that sequence shows his morning meeting and then there was one image showing what it looks like when the oval office is full of the media. to show you how many people can fit in the oval office. >> host: how long were you there are? >> guest: it varies. it could go, nothing shorter

than eight hours. either 12 hours or 16 hours and then a lot of my schedule when i would travel with the president, those days would be longer and the international travel. so basically as long as it took to always watch him and make sure and of course i had backup. i couldn't do it all alone. so when i needed help and i needed to rest i have support staff. we had four other photographers on staff which we covered the first lady and we covered the vice president and so -- >> host: there were five of you? >> guest: exactly. >> host: were there any time that were off-limits? >> guest: well, you know obviously there are private moments. his private time as the president definitely off-limits and i have so much access that i really would kind of have to

hold back to respect that privacy just because i was always around. i was definitely on his radar but not actually in front of him so i tried to respect that. >> host: this photo here in the white house or in the oval office, were you the only one in the room at this point? >> guest: yes. >> host: what's that like? do they talk with you, do you interact or do they ignore you? >> guest: they ignore me. there were days when the president wouldn't even speak to me and that is what i wanted. i didn't want want him to acknowledged me every time i walked into the room because that would change the environment. i change the environment because i was always present but i didn't always want him to interact because i really wanted to document real moments and not change anything. so, that was my role. >> host: you write that it was magical whenever president bush

and his father were together. there are a lot of photos of the two presidents bush in this book. >> guest: first of all they look so alike which is really interesting and anytime they were together it was like history in the making because you have two presidents together, father and son. the second son of the president to become president and it was always really interesting photographing them together as a family. they are so normal in lots of ways other than the fact that they are two presidents together. i really enjoyed documenting the family and the entire bush family. >> host: and did you get to know mrs. bush as well? >> guest: i did. >> host: i want to ask about this photo on a very very long couch. how did this come about? >> guest: this was inside the

palace prior to departing for a black-tie dinner hosted by the queen and the president and mrs. bush were staying there. they were kind of walking around and they were like kids. they really enjoyed themselves and they said eric, and photograph us on this couch. they are playing around so the image created a fund like moment. >> host: there is another photo here from 2001 where mr. and mrs. bush are on the campaign. >> guest: this was january 20, 2001. the president and mrs. bush were rehearsing before their very first inaugural ball backstage at the reagan center. just a quiet moments just the two of them. obviously a lot of commotion going on behind me because everyone is preparing for the event and they wanted to rehearse their dance which they repeated literally a dozen times that night.

>> host: now in a lot of these photos you do see secret service agents standing around. what was your relationship to you? do they have the final say over your access? >> guest: no, no. they were great to work with. they knew exactly what i needed to do and of course they were the priority. the president safety was always the ultimate. if they were in the way they would actually ask me, they would get out of the way because they were in the way so they were wonderful people and they help me get my job done especially with predicting the president's events in knowing where to show up. my job was to stay a step ahead of the president in order to be in the right position and at the right time. >> host: barney. >> guest: the president called barney the son he never had and

as you can see they really enjoyed each other. the president would play with him even during the day in the oval office. barney literally had an all access pass to the whitehouse. he could go anywhere. >> host: eric draper i wanted to ask about this. the presidents on the south lawn of the white house and you can look straight at him. can people see him from where they are on the jogging path? >> guest: the white house, the way it's laid out typically the president would walk onto the south lawn. it's almost like he was alone, not completely alone and obviously there are thousands of tourists outside. it's a really interesting place and how it's laid out. >> host: here is another visit. mrs. beasley in the picture. >> guest: mrs. beasley was more affectionate and the president was play with her a lot.

these types of light moments happened literally in seconds and then it was back to the seriousness of the day or a meeting. it was amazing how quickly things would transition from very intense to light and funny to back to serious. the whole day was like that. >> host: crawford. you write in here and i should say in "front row seat" there is a page or two of text introducing each segment. you say here that, i enjoyed the president's trip to texas more than the time that was spent in washington. why? >> guest: first of all i am more of a westerner in terms of i'm from california and from the west. i really enjoy getting out in the open space and enjoyed not having to wear a suit. crawford was always casual. but then as a photojournalist, a

photographer trying to tell a story, the story was so fun to document. what i tried to do was just hang out. he was more relaxed because he had more downtime and photographed president bush. even though his meetings and is scheduled with the very much on time he still had time to unwind and i was able to document him more on a personal level. >> host: you spend a lot of time writing in the back, didn't you? >> guest: romping around in the back. >> host: what was that like? here he was in, i'm not sure who was there. is that the spanish prime minister? >> guest: the king of saudi arabia. >> host: the king of saudi arabia in the truck with bush. who actually is in the truck at this point? you look like you were in the backseat.

>> guest: depending on it was visiting, you had several people that needed to be in the truck so you had obviously security but there is also an interpreter or even another guest. it was a couple with the world leader had a spouse. i typically had to ride in the back of the bed, open the rear window on the ford truck and shoot through the window as if i were in the truck. >> host: is that where you are in these pictures here? >> guest: yes, it's a funny picture because i had to stretch to get my camera to the window and i was bumping around in the back of the truck. >> host: and their security course interpretinterpret ers in the backseat? >> guest: they are all over the place. >> host: what security also follow you around the ranch in vehicle's? >> guest: yes, guards entourage following the president wherever he went. >> host: i want to read a

little bit from your crawford introduction. i'm one of my first weekend trips to the ranch the president's first lady invites me to join them for what. i wasn't prepared because i was still wearing my suit. the president said he would loan me some clothing so i could go along. i said sure and we went to the house. he searched his closet and he emerged with a t-shirt in a pair of shorts. both were two sizes too small for me in the shorts were as bright as the flag of china and russia combined. i couldn't couldn't refuse plus a one of the pictures so got dressed. there we were walking out on a dusty trail me and my two small clothing and dress shoes when i heard the president and first lady having a laugh at me and in my not so presidential attire. >> guest: that really happened. [laughter] >> host: 9/11. two photos here that we want to show folk. >> guest: yes, these moments

were following the famous movement when this chief of staff told the president and the president left the classroom with all the children and walked into the phone room. that is where there was a tv in the corner. it showed the live images of the towers, the twin towers burning in new york. i was shocked like everyone just looking at that image. immediately i tried to focus on taking pictures and not missing anything. what i tried to do was definitely connect what was happening in the dark with what the president was doing and i was waiting for the moment when the president would actually watch the tv to see what was happening but he never looked up. he was so focused on his work because he was preparing for his first statement to the nation into the world in response to the attack. it wasn't until the moment that dan bartlett alerted everyone in

the room and they were replaying flight 177 hitting the tower and it was the first time he had seen it. the president turned to see that image for the very first time which is burned into everyone's memory. >> host: eric draper who got the famous photo of andy card whispering in his ear where you can all see the president tense up? >> guest: the press photographers that were in the classroom capture that moment. >> host: and then the board air force one that day? >> guest: yeah, the first few moments aboard were very surreal and very tense. no one knew where we were headed. no one knew where we were going. i remember walking to air force one before we left and as i walked to the door and he card was telling everyone to remove their batteries from their phones because we didn't know if we were being traced. you might see this image here. the president on the phone and

on the other side of the frame you have andy card in a huddle with the secret service in the military trying to figure out where to go. we actually flew out over the gulf of mexico basically for safety and it was very tense. we started hearing lots of reports on the plane like car bomb hitting the state department which was false. we heard an object was heading towards the president's ranch which was false and in came the most a real moment moment when the present him of the cabin and he said i just heard that angel was the next target. that was very surreal and those were the early moments. >> host: offutt air force base. what is this photo we are looking at? >> guest: is an image of the secret service agent standing outside this room where inside

the president was receiving a full briefing for military commanders that were there. >> host: this is one of the occasions where you are not allowed in? >> guest: exactly. >> host: did you have secret clearance, top secret clearance? >> guest: i did, had top secret clearance. >> host: you had to go through the background check. what is that process like? >> guest: very intense. they call everyone. >> host: what time did your day and that they are not 11? do you remember what time the day and at? >> guest: we ended up flying to washington very late in the afternoon and the president got aboard marine one and landed on the south lawn. the rest of the staff were advanced and headed to the whitehouse. by the time i caught up with the president he was down in the kiosk, the presidential

emergency operation center under the whitehouse which i didn't know existed at that stage until that day. that is where he was having his first face-to-face meeting with the vice president and his national security team interaction to these attacks. >> host: eric draper what time of the day was this photo taken on 9/11? >> guest: that was probably early evening around 7:30 or 8:00. it was before the president's address to the nation from the oval office. and so the day is still not over. a very long day. >> host: march, 2003 you have this photo of the president walking outside. >> guest: yeah, this is the moment in terms of intensity obviously 9/11 was off the

charts but this to me was one of the most intense moments that i experienced photographing. this was the moment after the decision was made to commit troops to iraq. the president made that decision in the situation room just minutes earlier. i was standing outside the door in the situation room when that meeting broke up. and i literally had to leave out of the way when the door swung open and the president walked out. he had this emotion on his face and i could see that something was happening. i didn't know exactly what's so i followed him. he walked through the oval office and not to the south lawn and walks the entire circle of the south lawn and that is when i took this picture. the decision was still weighing on his face. >> host: did he ever say to you, get away or not now? >> guest: no.

at this moment as a matter of fact he did speak to me right after i made this picture. he said on the south lawn eric are you interesteinterested in history? all i could say was yes, sir. he said these pictures you are taking the one in the situation and the one on the south lawn are very important. just as i said that out of the corner of my eye i saw as don rumsfeld secretary of defense and vice president cheney walking out of the oval office and the president walked over to greet them. at that stage they were discussing the timing of the start of the war in iraq. >> host: when you see a meeting like this happening, how close do you physically get to history? >> guest: well i didn't get too close but that was fine because they felt photographically speaking i was in the right spot in order to capture the environment.

they were standing outside of the oval office. i actually shot a photo with a telephoto so you can really see their expressions during this moment. i was just far enough away where i couldn't hear what they were saying that i could definitely tell from their expressions that it was a very intense discussion. >> host: eric j4 to the photos contained in those scenes, did they have to be cleared by secret service by the bush folks? >> guest: yeah. everything is approved by the president's library and nothing was top secret about those photographs so that was no issue there. >> host: here's the photo when the president announced on october 7, 2001 afghanistan one. >> guest: right, this is the treaty room of the whitehouse and this is just you know nearly a month after 9/11 when the war

in afghanistan was announced. >> host: eric draper a lot of historical moments in here but there are also some lighter moments i guess is the word that i wanted to ask you about. this was from 2004. >> guest: are you talking about the boots? >> guest: . >> host: let's start with this one that's on the screen. >> guest: being around and just hanging out waiting for a surprise moment. i had a schedule and briefings. there are a lot of things that are scripted but to me the joy of my job was waiting for the surprise moments like this day, the day that this box showed up in the oval office. this was early in the morning, about 7:00 a.m. and the president opened the box and it's a boxing rope that he pulled out. and he puts it on and i'm the only one there.

he said let me find someone to show it to so that is what he is doing here. he's opening the door to the west wing to see if anyone is around so he can show it off. that was pretty funny. >> host: there are two more photos on this page from 2004's re-election. do not erase and night? >> guest: exactly, it's not duration evening 2004 and this was prior to the texas black-tie boots all. the president took off his tuxedo shoes and put on his boots. this shows the president had a great sense of humor. he would always find the right time to lighten the mood. he had some of the most serious moments and the comic relief he would deliver, the staff really enjoyed that. i myself enjoyed being around him because of his sense of

humor. >> host: eric draper this looks like a big holding room in one of the hotels in washington. how many people -- he looks all alone in this great big room. is he all alone in this great big room in this case? >> guest: know, there's a group behind it. >> host: aides? people? >> guest: people scattered about. not a ton of people. >> host: in 2007 visitors to the whitehouse. >> guest: queen elizabeth in princeville up visited the whitehouse and this is prior to a black-tie dinner hosted by the president and mrs. bush in the yellow oval room which is in the residence. and so they are just talking before going down to dinner and trying to show the grandeur of it all. the oval room is so beautiful. it's really a great place to

photograph. >> host: i want to ask you if this is significant at all. prince philip's had a drink in his hands but it looks like a queen might have put her drink down over here on the table. did you happen to notice that at all so she wasn't photographed with a drink in her hand? >> guest: you know i didn't notice that. >> host: you tell the story about your into the moment with queen elizabeth and i will read it straight from the book. >> guest: well, i will tell you because when you are the photographer for the president, you have to stay close and sometimes it's too close. in this case and this was earlier in the day when the queen was visiting the whitehouse so on arrival she walked up stairs to the president. i'm trying to remember exactly how long because she hadn't been in the white house for a few years. mrs. bush was giving her tour of the residence. we went to the bedroom and ended up in the queen's room. then i followed mrs. bush with

queen elizabeth and then realized that she was actually taking queen elizabeth to the restrooms. by the time i realized what was happening i was embarrassed and i did an about-face and standing in front of me was prince philip. he kind of said with a straight face, are you following them to the lou? luckily he laughed and i laughed and it didn't turn into an international incident but definitely awkward. >> host: eric draper why did you choose the photo on the cover? >> guest: you know that picture to me visually is the composition and the lighting, it's an iconic image to me. it shows the seriousness of the job but it also shows the environment of the whitehouse. to me that one just stood out of the pack for a cover photo. >> host: do you have a

favorite? >> guest: i think the president's trip to africa, his last trip to africa in 2007 to me, that was my favorite trip. i think witnessing the outpouring of love and thankfulness from all of the countries we visited, and this is after in reaction to the pepfar, which all of the aids or global health, that's the president initiated and all of the african people in the country were so thankful. it was wonderful to witness and the color and the culture there and for me it was my first trip to africa. as a black american to go to africa is really neat and i really enjoyed that. >> host: we see in your book a picture of him dancing, and

there's a video. were you there? were you present? what was that moment like? >> guest: it was fun, it was fun and the crowd went crazy when he started to dance. he actually -- >> host: did you shoot some photos of that? >> guest: yeah, was very fun. >> host: in the introduction to the book you got to have it developing slideshow for the president on the flight home. >> guest: yeah. it was something that i started following 9/11, one of the first trips abroad. i tried to create a show to kind of lift the spirits of everyone traveling, to kind of show the hard work that was put into a lot of these trips. i started doing it after every trip abroad. every trip i would raise the bar and add graphics and titles